At least it’s spring somewhere. Two tourists take a self-portrait with a phone as they stand amidst blooming daffodils in St. James Park Tuesday in London, England. / Associated Press

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News Journal

This morning’s very scattered snow showers have moved out of the area, with only the snowbelt east of Cleveland likely to be bothered for the rest of the day.

Here in Mansfield we should see at least partly sunny skies, but the early-morning snow came in on the heels of a cold front that’s ushered in a fresh infusion of Arctic air, so don’t expect temperatures to warm much today. Wednesday’s forecast high temperature is just 16 degrees, 23 degrees below normal.

While our temps should stay above zero overnight, yet another new jolt of Arctic air during Thursday – again, look for a chance of snow showers – will keep us cold tomorrow, followed by below-zero numbers throughout the area Friday morning. If cloud cover is sparse, the colder rural locales could drop to 10 degrees below zero then, somewhat unusual for the end of February when our normal low temp is 23 above.

And then our weather gets interesting.

A front expected to become stationary over the Ohio Valley over the weekend will usher deep moisture into our area, which should translate into snow, very possibly a lot of it.

A perusal of the various forecasts from various entities this morning found little consistency. I saw one forecast calling for a foot of snow in Mansfield, although 4-8 inches is probably a more realistic estimate at this point. There’s also some talk that any snow will change over to a wintry mix, meaning sleet or freezing rain.

That phasing will largely depend on where the front stalls, but placement over the Ohio River suggests we would remain on the cold side of any systems that ride up along the front, keeping us in all snow. A set-up like this would also allow for a series of low pressure systems, not just one, to parallel the boundary. That may account for why there is presently snow in our forecast from early Saturday morning all the way into Monday, although it looks like Sunday will be the toughest day.

Finally, let’s take a look at the numbers. Toledo has set a record for the snowiest winter in its weather history, with 73.5 inches, topping the 73.1 inches that fell there during the harsh winter of 1977-78.

Here in Mansfield, we’re nowhere near our snowiest mark, nor are we likely to get there. But the 52.4 inches of snow that have fallen here so far this winter are just 5.3 inches short of the top 10 snowiest winters here. This February alone has tied February 1971 as the ninth snowiest February in Mansfield weather history.

Through Tuesday, Mansfield is 15.7 inches above normal on snow. Our 52.4 inches of snow so far this season compares to 28.6 inches we had measured at this point last winter. Mansfield averages 48.3 inches of snow during a typical winter.

Below are the weather statistics for Tuesday, Feb. 25 at my location 4 miles north-northwest of Fredericktown, Ohio: